Research Interests
The ability for regeneration and repair of the central nervous system (CNS) comprising of the brain and spinal cord diminishes with age. This means that while spontaneous regeneration and repair take place during development of a vertebrate, a big CNS injury during adulthood is often irreversible. In the past 20 years research has revealed that different inhibitory proteins in the CNS negatively affect nerve fiber outgrowth in the adult after injury. One of the most potent nerve fiber growth inhibitory proteins is Nogo-A which is mainly expressed in adult myelin surrounding axons.
After discovering and characterizing Nogo-A we developed means to rule out the inhibitory function of Nogo-A with function blocking antibodies. In the animal model, anti-Nogo-A antibodies administered intrathecally or intracerebrally lead to regenerating and sprouting fibers as seen in histological sections and to functional recovery evaluated in a variety of behavioral tests: Partially spinalized rats can perform locomotor tasks better and more precisely when treated with anti-Nogo-A antibodies compared to control animals, their bladder recovers faster and they are less prone to develop muscle spasms. These results suggest that new connections are formed which lead to functional recovery of the rats. Enhanced compensatory fiber growth, formation of new connections and a high level of functional recovery are also observed in brain lesioned rats and in experimental stroke following Nogo-A antibody treatment.